From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos
From Address: sdlitvin{at}earthlink.net
Subject: Scientists achieve reliable quantum teleportation

Physicists at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, part of the Delft 
University of Technology in the Netherlands, report that they sent 
quantum data concerning the spin state of an electron to another 
electron about 10 feet away. The results can be replicated accurately 
100 percent of the time, the team said.

Thanks to the strange properties of entanglement, this allows for that 
data -- only quantum data, not classical information like messages or 
even simple bits -- to be teleported seemingly faster than the speed of 
light. The news was reported first by The New York Times on Thursday, 
following the publication of a paper in the journal Science.

Proving Einstein wrong about the purview and completeness of quantum 
mechanics is not just an academic boasting contest. Proving the 
existence of entanglement and teleportation -- and getting experiments 
to work efficiently, in larger systems and at greater distances -- holds 
the key to translating quantum mechanics to practical applications, like 
quantum computing. For instance, quantum computers could utilize that 
speed to unlock a whole new generation of unprecedented computing power.

Quantum teleportation is not teleportation in the sense one might think. 
It involves achieving a certain set of parameters that then allow 
properties of one quantum system to get tangled up with another so that 
observations are reflected simultaneously, thereby "teleporting" the 
information from one place to another.

To do this, researchers at Delft first had to create qubits out of 
classical bits, in this case electrons trapped in diamonds at extremely 
low temperatures that allow their quantum properties, like spin, to be 
observed.

A qubit is a unit of quantum data that can hold multiple values 
simultaneously thanks to an equally integral quantum phenomenon called 
superposition, a term fans of the field will accurately associate with 
Heisenberg's uncertainty principal that says something exists in all 
possible states until it is observed. It's the same way quantum 
computing may one day surpass the speeds of classical computing by 
allowing calculations to spread bit values between 0, 1 or any 
probabilistic value between the two numbers -- in other words, a 
superposition of both figures.

With quibits separated by a distance of three meters, the researchers 
were able to observe and record the spin of one electron and see that 
reflected in the other qubit instantly. It's an admittedly wonky 
conception of data teleportation that requires a little head scratching 
before it begins to clear up.

Still, its effects could be far reaching. The researchers are attempting 
to increase that distance to more than a kilometer, which would be ample 
leeway to test whether or not entanglement was a consistent phenomenon 
and that the information was traveling faster than the speed of light. 
Such experiments would more definitively knock down Einstein's 
disqualification of entanglement due to its violation of classical 
mechanics.

"There is a big race going on between five or six groups to prove 
Einstein wrong," Ronald Hanson, a physicist leading the research at 
Delft, told The New York Times. "There is one very big fish."

http://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-achieve-reliable-quantum-teleportation-for-the-first-time/



-- 
Steven L.
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